Here, in a single volume, is a rich, dramatic, and solidly researched history of Virginia, written by one of the state's most distinguished citizens. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Virginius Dabney traces its growth and development, from the first settlement at Jamestown through the prosperity and influence of the colonial and Revolutionary periods, the bitter agony of the Civil War, and the social and economic developments of the twentieth century. He includes vital, human portraits of famous Virginians -- Captain John Smith, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the Lees, the Byrds, and many others -- and devotes attention to the contributions of the blacks, the Scotch-Irish, Germans and other groups whose historical significance has long been slighted. It is the story of a rich and beautiful land, where courageous men and women built the proud Old Dominion, and where imaginative young leaders are building today a dynamic New Dominion, the worthy heir to the state which showed the way to the nation in the early years. --jacket.